


A Love Destined

by babychan



Category: Sleepy Hollow, Sleepy Hollow (TV), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 21:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2362409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babychan/pseuds/babychan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the others, it was only a few hours of torment but Abbie and Ichabod lived a year with no one but each other to depend on. The experience changed everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Love Destined

A/N. I write for the pure love of it, I make no money from it (sad face)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

A Love Destined

 

 

“Are you sure you don’t want us to stay?” Abbie inquired while worriedly looking up at Crane as she gathered her coat and the keys to the stolen ambulance.

 

It was late, or early that next morning and she had already planned to take a day off from work to get her head together. Her memories were jumbled and she couldn’t quite shake the fear that she was somehow dreaming again, and actually still trapped in purgatory.

 

Ichabod nodded as he walked them toward the front porch of the cabin.  In truth, he really wanted to keep walking beyond the doorway for this secluded residence now held a thousand intimate memories of his false year with the Leftenant.

 

After their reunion, the three had convened in Corbin’s cabin and dutifully informed each other of the unique information each had acquired from their inimitable experience.

 

However, as he restlessly moved around the small enclosure, his eidetic memory kept seeking out Abbie’s wares in order to confirm the truth of his memories and validate their… common-law status in spite of knowing that life was a lie.

 

The lack of her possessions in the cabin was a painful reminder of what he lost by gaining what he thought he wanted.

 

 He knew Abbie felt the same as she declared war on Henry and Moloch.

 

Still, even as they prepared themselves for a fight, they had no strategty and no idea what his son would do now that his plan to free the demon had failed.

 

“Are you sure?” Jenny pressed as she followed him outside.

 

“I am quite certain, Miss Mill’s” He assured primly. “Though I am grateful for your concern to my well-being.”

 

Jenny nodded and gave him one last awkward hug before she stood close and behind Abbie.  He noticed that even though she bravely tried to hide it, the fact that they, all, almost died today was taking a toll on the younger sibling and the way that she looked at the Leftenant, Jenny seemed to be fighting the urge to fist and cling to the back of her big— yet very tiny in stature— sister’s jacket.

 

Crane gazed at the two women before him and was overwhelmed with relief by the very fact that he was able to keep his promise and free Abbie from purgatory. 

 

Despite her wishes, it had killed him to leave her there.

 

It pained him even more now that he knew it was for not.

 

Abbie always told him there was always another way to remedy every challenge. Another solution to the obvious.

 

He could have freed Katrina with the key and never had to sacrifice Abbie at all.

 

If he would have waited, if they would have just looked a bit longer… he would not be suffering the fate of another ill-fated love.

 

This loss…in his opinion, was worse than discovering the fact that he was a widower.

 

Twice. 

 

Because Abbie was standing right in front of him, and he, lawfully, belonged to another.

 

So he shifted his attentions to the youngest Miss Mills and the fact that Jenny was alive. 

 

Though his memories were false, he had bereaved deeply for the youngest sister for he cared for her. He also grieved desperately for Abbie because her sister’s death almost destroyed her.

 

As family was concerned, Jenny was all Abbie had left.

 

And then she was gone.

 

Their shared mourning drew them closer.

 

Mostly by his urgings because Abbie was closing herself off and pushing him away.

 

She was used to standing alone with only a small handful of people willing to force their way through her own protective walls. Unfortunately, they were all dead, Corbin, Andy, Luke and now Jenny…. She couldn’t stand the thought of losing Crane too, so she tried to reject him and force him to leave on her terms.

 

But he wouldn’t allow it.

 

Then— in this false memory—when they reached an impasse and their relationship moved neither forwards or backwards, Katrina was murdered by the Horseman of Death.

 

 Their shared grief and need for revenge brought them together in ways he had no right remembering, regardless of having a eidetic memory.

 

However, he now knows regret.

 

Not because he loves… loved Abbie… for their love was pure.

 

He regrets the unexpected sense of _relief_ he felt the first time he became one with Abbie.

 

He carries the shame of feeling _free_ to love Abbie _because_ of his wife’s death.

 

As if it were an unfortunate yet providential gift.

 

But try as he might, he could summon no regret for their love-making and the romantic addition in their unwavering bond.

 

This guilt, which was rooted in feeling no guilt, fed into his need for revenge.

 

Abbie understand this dichotomy for she was most pragmatic but also because during that false year, he had proved his almost obsessive love for her.

 

In hindsight, Craned wondered why Henry decided to show them this hidden truth.

 

And truth it was.

 

For his son was a Sin Eater, despite his treachery and status as a Horseman.  Henry’s greatest weakness was his honesty; however, his ability to pull the truth from the hearts of others was also his greatest weapon.

 

Ichabod wonders how the unveiling of their affections and the memories of their relationship, in light of his rediscovered matrimonial obligations to Katrina, will impinge on their bond.

 

As it stands…it is already breaking his heart.

 

Straightening his posture to visually show the appearance of composure, Ichabod took a deep breath and assured, “I’m fine, Leftenant.” He forced a smile, though it did not reach his eyes. “Moreover, it’s been quite some time since you have been in your sister’s company. Perhaps you and she should use this time to catch up.”

 

Jenny looked at him with a quirk of a confused brow before she remembered that in their minds, it had been a year, and during that time, she was believed to be murdered. However, by her own experience, it had only been a few hours.  A few terrifyingly horrible hours but still not even a full day.

 

The memory made her ignore some of her pride and grab her sister’s hand.

 

At the gesture, Abbie shifted her gaze toward the younger woman, smiled with an unspoken assurance and tightened her hold on her little sister’s hand before she gazed back and up at Crane with impossibly wide innocent eyes, which Crane found ironic since only hours before she decapitated someone, who looked like him, without hesitation.

 

 “Are you certain?” She whispered, in a manner to protect his pride.

 

“I am,” He admitted with as much hubris as he could muster.

 

“Because I can stay if you need me… Us…I mean, we can stay if you need us to.” She amended and assured.

 

“I do need you,” He thought woefully, “And that is the root of the problem.” However, he did not admit that verbally, instead he jutted out his chin, raised his left brow and gave her a superior look that silently elucidated that he was fine.

 

In Crane’s not so humble opinion, this… second awakening, of sorts, was worst than his first.  

 

As a man out of time, he was grounded in the past and he held onto to it steadfastly as he clung to what knew. Whether it be the fashion of his attire, his memories, his intellect or his love for his wife…

 

His _past_ … was safe and the only controllable constant in this unfamiliar world.

 

This time, however…

 

He lost his future.

 

And the right to a love most pure.

 

He stared at Abbie with half-lidded eyes and felt the burn of unshed tears.

 

Try as he might, there was no disavowing the fact that he loved this woman.

 

That in that false year, of constant companionship and comfort, he grew to be obsessively in love with this woman.

 

And because of this love, breaking into Hell and traversing its realm for possibly all eternity was no hardship as long as he knew she was there.

 

But, now, he had to deny that emotion.

 

He _had_ to…

 

Because Katrina was alive.

 

And Grace Abigail Mills is a most honorable woman.

 

He would not dishonor her… or the memory— false though it maybe— of their time together.

 

~~

 

Abbie stared at him, long and intensely before, she reluctantly nodded and sighed “Okay,” to his request. She could see his internal conflict, shimmering in his overly wet eyes. She nodded again, pressing her mouth into a firm frown as she debated changing her mind and staying anyway. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she knew that her staying there was not what either of them needed, regardless of the fact that they both wanted it.

 

 “Call me if you need me… or if you just want to talk okay?” 

 

She stepped back at his nod.  It felt strange leaving him and… their place to go home… to a house she hadn’t lived in for almost a year, but as the adrenaline of leaving purgatory seeped out of her body, she knew this was the wisest course of action. 

 

She didn’t belong here.

 

Not in the sense that she…could not yet forget.

 

The life she remembered… was a lie and though she loathed admitting it, part of her grieved for that illusion.

 

Not for the death of her sister or Crane’s wife, of course.

 

But for a love that should have never been.

 

She wondered why Henry and Moloch forced them to endure a false year of lies before they pressed the purpose of their deception.

 

She refused to think of how much free reign they had over their actions and how the intimate relationship, which she and Ichabod developed, was born out of, not just grief, but an unparalleled friendship, a mutual desire, respect and love.

 

~~

 

As Abbie took another step back and away from him, Crane had to force himself from reaching out and pulling her close.

 

 He did not want to let her go.

 

And with each step she took away from him, his heart… no his soul cried out for her.

 

 She belonged…here.

 

With him.

 

And he with her.

 

Damn Henry and Moloch for forcing this truth into their present reality!

 

Before he could stop himself, Crane grabbed her free hand and held fast, forcing her to spin around and face him.

 

“Abbie” was all he said in a soulful, heart rendering whisper but that was all it took before she rushed into his arms and choked back a sob at the unfairness of Henry’s cruelty.

 

Jenny, who was watching them with eyes, which were a tad too insightful did not think the embrace odd, at first. Even before their false year, they were tactile with one another, and therefore, an embrace, even an impassioned embrace, did not appear peculiar.

 

However, Crane knew that when Abbie tried to pull back and he—reluctant to be parted from her— pressed her impossibly closer, he needed to let go.

 

He could barely separate what he knew to be false, to what he honestly believed— wanted— to be true.

 

Moreover, this… hug…was no longer a gesture done in the purest of friendship.

 

It was an act of deliberate adultery.

 

Of the heart if not the body.

 

Because…during that false year of constant companionship he grew to love her.

 

Utterly and truly.

 

When Jenny awkwardly shifted in his peripheral and feigned interest in the darkened sky, the woods, the floorboards of the porch, anywhere, which was not in their direction, he knew the ruse was up and felt grateful for Jenny’s presence.

 

It grounded him.

 

Her very existence reminded him of Moloch’s trickery and his son’s cruel betrayal.

 

It returned to the forefront of his mind, the truth that his twice-mourned wife was alive and captured by the Horsemen of Death.

 

And it shamed him…for it took the memory of Katrina’s capture to reluctantly let Abbie go.

 

He stepped back most guiltily as he opened and closed his fists and resisted a natural need to touch her again.

 

To embrace her.

 

To pull her into the cabin and make passionate love to her as they were oft to do after a successful mission.

 

As he remembered with stunning clarity

 

Again

 

And again.

 

And again.

 

Abbie took in his body language with a keen knowing gaze and gave him a sad smile before she said, “Goodnight, Crane,” with so much melancholy that it left no doubt to what she truly meant. She then turned and quickly walked back toward the stolen ambulance, pulling her sister along by the hand.

 

He forced himself to remain on the porch and let her walk away, but he could not bring himself to return the sentiment.

 

He could not say _goodnight_ to the memory of their affections.

 

Instead, Ichabod stood forlorn and watched them drive off until the vehicle was out of his line of vision before he reentered the cabin and allowed himself to cry and mourn for a love that was destined…

 

But not allowed to be.

 

 

 

The end

 

^__^

 

 

 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A.N. I wanted to thank the writers of Sleepy Hollow for giving all us Ichabbie shippers that YEAR, that perfect perfect year, where Crane could mourn and move on, even if he cannot forgive the murder of Katrina, which is understandable.

I also want to thank the writers for Killing off Katrina that year, when they could have easily kept her kidnapped, but no, they gave us a legitimate way to initially hook-them-up without resorting to purposeful adultery.

Thank you and I love you, writers.

Now we, Ichabbies, have canon to explain their undeniable love!!!!

Now, my muse is in overdrive! 

Whoohooo!!

 

Hugs

Babychan

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
